Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 03:59, 16 September 2012

This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Typhoon" novella – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Typhoon is a novel by Joseph Conrad, begun in 1899 and serialized in Pall Mall Magazine in January–March 1902. Its first book publication was in New York by Putnam in 1902 and was published in Britain in Typhoon and Other Stories by Heinemann in 1903.

Plot summary

It is a classic sea yarn, possibly based upon real Conrad's experience of seaman's life, and probably on a real incident aboard of the real steamer "John P. Best". It describes how Captain MacWhirr sails the Siamese steamer Nan-Shan into a typhoon—a mature tropical cyclone of the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean. Other characters include the young Jukes - most probably an 'alter ego' of Conrad from the time he had sailed under captain John McWhir - and Solomon Rout, the chief engineer. The novel classically evokes the seafaring life at the turn of the century. While Macwhirr, who, according to Conrad, 'never walked on this Earth' - is emotionally estranged from his family and crew, and though he refuses to consider an alternate course to skirt the typhoon, his indomitable will in the face of a superior natural force elicits grudging admiration.

Characters

• Captain MacWhirr, an empirical man without imagination.
• Captain Wilson from "Melita", the "storm-strategist".
• Jukes, the first mate (with no first name).
• Jukes' absent friends - second mate Jack Allen and another mate from trans-Atlantic liner (addressee of Jukes' letter).
• Solomon Rout, the chief engineer, an experienced seaman.
• Second engineer Harry and third engineer Beale.
• The boatswain.
• The second mate.
• Sailors, steward and cook of the "Nan-Shan".
• The coolies, hired workers from India and China.
• The clerk for Messrs. Bun-Hin Co.
• Mrs Lucy MacWhirr, the Captain's wife.
• Lydia MacWhirr, the Captain's daughter.
• Mrs Rout, the chief engineer's wife.
• Messrs Sigg and Son, the owners of the boat.
• Owners and foremen from the building yard.

Major themes

This article or section may have been copied and pasted from another location, possibly in violation of Misplaced Pages's copyright policy. Please review the source and remedy this by editing this article to remove any non-free copyrighted content and attributing free content correctly, or flagging the content for deletion. Please be sure that the supposed source of the copyright violation is not itself a Misplaced Pages mirror.

On the surface an adventure novel, the book contains many interwoven themes including:

• In a dangerous situation, people will follow someone showing certainty even if the source of the certainty is dubious.
• Lack of imagination can place one in as much danger as lack of experience.

S/s "NAN-SHAN" IS a twin-decked, single-funnelled steamer with two masts and (at least) two-cylinder steam piston engine, working on one shaft and fed by one coal-burning boiler placed in the boiler-room before the engine room. The ship carries as well auxiliary rig and sails of a schooner. She was built 'almost three years ago' by a shipyard owned by two sharers at Dumbarton, British Isles, to the order of Messrs. "Sigg & Son", Trading & Shipping Company based and working in Siam (Bangkok?). The foreman in charge of the Nan-Shan construction is Mr. Bates. Mr. Tait, a shipwright, is responsible for finishing works aboard, including door locks in the cabins, which his people have spoiled. The ship, ready for service, becomes the handiest unit of her size in Chinese waters. Soon after commissioning for service her owners transfer the ship from the British to the Siamese flag.

NO TECHNICAL DETAILS of the ship are mentioned (like gross or dead weight tonnage, dimensions, or speed). Her sides are long and grey. She is wide and flat-bottomed, fitted with bilge keels and has separate officers' cabins. Her bridge occupies the midship. In the wheelhouse (which scarcely offers room to move around and has two windows) there are a steering wheel, a compass in the oval mounting with glass, a voice tube to the engine room and gratings on the floor. As the main lifesaving equipment there are two boats. Furthermore the ship is fitted with many technical innovations and solutions, such as cargo winches and derricks, steam anchor winch or high quality navigational instruments. At least two downtake ventilators with horizontally-movable heads, placed on both sides by the bridge superstructure behind the funnel (?) supply the boiler and engine rooms with fresh air. Weak point of the ship are defective door locks.

THE CHART ROOM Captain MacWhirr's sea quarter. In it there are a sofa, a working table, an armchair and a bookshelf, as well, as two barometers on the bulkheads (walls), including an aneroid one over the sofa. On the table there are the Captain's working tools (always arranged in strict order) like rulers, pencils and inkwell.

Among many books on the shelf there is one thick navigational manual with a chapter, describing storms in details. At the ceiling hangs a lamp in gimbals. In the room there are holders for a bottle of water and two glasses. There is also a shelf with a deep ledge, where always a half-filled matchbox is to be placed, and close to the sofa there is a hand washbasin with towel locker.

IN THE CABIN there are some rifles, as all ships running China coasts carry them.

The Nan-Shan has an empty COAL BUNKER across her hull, used as an additional cargo hold. There is an iron door to it out of the first 'tweendeck; the gangway to it being the first one in the superstructure alleyway.

THE ENGINE ROOM resembles the inside of a monument, divided into levels by iron scaffolding; its walls are painted white and the compartment is lit dimly by the deck skylight. It is accessible from the (superstructure) deck or via the boiler room, which itself is probably connected with the coal bunker and the first 'tweendeck, where the coolies travel.

THE CHIEF ENGINEER's WORKING STATION is located opposite the engine starter, fitted with railing and to the right of it there are the boiler manometer and water level indicator.

THE OFFICERS include seven people. Two of them are known by family and first names (Skipper Thomas MacWhirr and the Chief Engineer Salomon Rout). Although a 'Thomas MacWhirr' (whose first name is mentioned one time in the whole story) never lived on this earth, he has, similarly to his ship, a historic namesake - the skipper John MacWhir, with whom Conrad served as an officer in the clipper Highland Forest. Two more officers are known only by family names (the First Mate Jukes and the Third Engineer Beale). Mr. Jukes, without any first name known, is based upon Conrad himself at the time of his service with skipper MacWhir. Another one is known by first name (the Second Engineer Harry). The last two people - the Second Mate and the Bosun - remain incognito. The Captain, the Chief Engineer and the Bosun are married; the First Mate Jukes is a 'bachelor, not even engaged'. The Second Mate replaced Mr Jukes' friend, Mr. John (Jack) Allen, who shortly after his arrival from the Country fell overboard into a coal lighter and was delivered to the harbour hospital at Shanghai with a brain concussion and some broken limbs.

OUT OF THE CREW we know the helmsman Hackett by family name. The clever Chips, the "old Dog" Cook, the Steward, a gossip too eager for news, the sailors, the donkeyman and the firemen - they all remain incognito.

"Nan-Shan" sets sail for her voyage from Bangkok on a December afternoon (after one p. m. she is to be under steam and ready for sea). This voyage is to be unique one - two hundred Chinese coolies are embarked and berthed in her fore 'tweendeck. The Chinamen return to their country, sent back by Messrs. Bun-Hin Co, and accompanied by a Bun-Hin clerk, acting as an interpreter. In the compartment there are six protected lamps. The Chips is ordered to fix three-inch-battens alongside the compartment so as to avoid shifting the coolies' chests. A sampan delivers twenty-five sacks of rice alongside, the base of the unusual passengers' menu during the voyage.

WHEN THE TYPHOON sets in, the Helmsman is steering the course N 45 E.

THE TYPHOON rages exactly through the afternoon, evening and night of the Christmas Eve, until morning of the first Christmas Day, lasting for thirty hours long without any break, and the calm when the ship passes the "centre of it" - only a bit more than 20 minutes. In one of his numerous and famous letters to his wife Lucy, brought to an end probably already at Foo-chow, Captain MacWhirr writes, that on Dec. 25th, between 4 and 6 a. m. he thought, that his ship wouldn't live another hour in such a weather, and he wouldn't see his wife and children any more again.

External links

• Typhoon and Other Stories, available at Internet Archive (1921 edition)
• Typhoon at Project Gutenberg
• Template:Ria

• 1902 novels
• Novels by Joseph Conrad
• Novels first published in serial form
• Works originally published in The Pall Mall Magazine
• Article Feedback 5